Earlier this year, the death of George Floyd sparked a tidal wave of protests that transformed the way the mainstream media discusses and frames the Black Lives Matter movement.
Now, rapper Lil Baby has stepped up to help bring a bit of joy back into the lives of Floyd’s family members in the wake of his tragic passing.
According to Forbes, the Atlanta rapper was part of the planning committee for a birthday party celebrating Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter, Gianna. Forbes reported that the party was organized by ATL restaurant owners Ericka and William Platt and NBA star Stephen Jackson. Lil Baby funded the entire gathering.
Lil Baby’s hit single, “The Bigger Picture,” became the most-streamed protest track after Floyd’s death. According to Forbes, the anthem sent Lil Baby to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart and assisted with returning his latest album, My Turn, to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200.
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The group started working on this labor of love way back in July after the young girl visited the Platts, the owners of ATL’s Restaurant Ten and Rosie’s Café. The couple has always been close to the Floyd family, and subsequently became well acquainted with Jackson when he became a leading voice in the “Justice for Floyd” protest movement.
“I think I adopted another child, God put me into this position,” Jackson said of Gianna. “I’m going to do the best that I can.”
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“This is a very difficult time for my daughter, so we’re very grateful that our extended family is creating such a special experience for Gianna on her first birthday without her father,” Gianna’s mother, Roxie Washington, told Forbes.
The party was a LOL Surprise Dolls-themed event held at the Atlanta’s Pink Hotel. The children of Lil Baby, Jackson, and Future celebrated with young Gianna. The children of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by police in June, were also in attendance.
“It was heartbreaking,” Former President Obama recently admitted while reflecting on how he felt while watching that horrific video of Floyd’s last moments. He added:
“Very rarely, though, did you see it so viscerally and over a stretch of time where the humanity of the victim is so apparent, the pain and the vulnerability of someone so clear. And it was, I think, a moment in which America for a brief moment came face to face with a reality that African Americans in this country I think had understood for quite some time.”
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